Annals of Botany 81: 729-734, 1998
© 1998 Annals of Botany Company
Using Viscoelastic Properties of the Woody Tissue from Tobacco Plants (Nicotiana tabacum) to Comment on the Molecular Structure of Cell Walls
Centre for Biomimetics, Earley Gate, TOB1, Reading University, Reading, RG6 2AT Zeneca Seeds, Jealott's Hill Research Station, Bracknell, RG12 6EY
October 13, 1977 ; January 5, 1988 . February 17, 1998 .
Lignin in the cell walls of woody tissue has a much lower crosslink density in tobacco wood than in tree wood. This causes tobacco wood to show very different viscoelastic behaviour. With the aid of genetically modified plants, it is shown that the lignin in tobacco plant cell walls behaves in much the same way as a polymer solution. It exhibits both rate stiffening and rate thinning behaviour due to the entangled nature of the lignin networks. The hydrophobic portions of lignin have a very low polymer chain crosslink density, hence entanglements make a significant contribution.Copyright 1998 Annals of Botany Company
Tobacco plants, lignin, polymer solution, shear thinning, stress relaxation.
![]()
CiteULike
Connotea
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
L. Koehler and F. W. Telewski Biomechanics and transgenic wood Am. J. Botany, October 1, 2006; 93(10): 1433 - 1438. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
